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From Days Gone By: Crown Heights in the ‘30s

A reader sent us this photo taken in the 1930s, which depicts the scene on an unpaved Crown Heights street. Can you identify the location of the photo?

Bonus question: what item in the photo can still be seen in place today?

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63 Comments

  • sure

    This is Crown Street, between Albany & Troy Ave. In front of the old hospital (which is now the back of Fisher’s houses)

  • Crown Condos

    The pic is the current site of the crown condos Crown bet. Troy & Albany. The tree is still there.

    If I am not mistaken, this is the hospital that was at this site, before the Crown Hotel.

    • Uncle Mendel

      Nice Identification. I concur. It is our building @ 580 Crown Street. The car is illegally parked, though. I am certain it got ticketed.

  • Crown Condos

    The present gate from Troy Ave and on may be the original depicted here.

  • Crown st hospital

    The hospital on crown st that later became the crown plaze hotel , is now the location of the 580 crown st condos

  • Crown St

    This is the old hospital which was on Crown St between Troy & Albany which is now 580 Crown, there is nothing in this picture that still exists, the building on the right was replaced by the Lubavitcher Yeshiva

  • iamgenious

    old crown heights hospital/hotel on crown between albany and troy. it looked so beautiful and peaceful back then

  • Anonymous

    Crown Street between Albany and Troy. The building is no longer there.

  • car is on crown St.

    Building is (the hospital. Where drizin build new condos.

  • katz

    this is where the hospital used to be on crown street
    now it the block of 580 crown street, the yeshiva and the houses on montgomery street between albany and troy

  • remember

    It’s on Crown Street, between Albany and Troy. The building and it’s grounds covered the entire block. It was a private hospital, where Jews were not welcome, all the way through the ’60’s. Today of course, the block houses the Yeshiva and new apartment buildings

  • ya

    Crown between Albany and Troy. This is where Crown condos currently stands.

  • Crown St. Between Albany & Troy

    It used to be a hospital, now its the crown condos

    i think the thing that is still there is the tree

  • Currently known as 580 Crown

    The tree might have grown and still be on the block.

  • RB

    Crown bet Albany and Troy.
    It was a hotel.
    Half the hill is still there.
    I remember the hill being the most difficult hill to climb.
    In the picture It doesn’t seem as steep as I remember it.

  • Anonymous

    Actually the Lubavitch Yeshiva building funded and established through the efforts of Rabbi Yossi Tiefenbrun a”h was not torn down. It was gutted and the Yeshiva took its place. Additions were made as well and therefor the building appears different today.
    We all, parents of the kinderlach learning on Crown and Albany owe a debt of gratitude to Yossi a”h whose last project.in this world was a Lubavitch Yeshiva in Crown Heights.

  • questions:

    1) does anyone have anymore pictures like this one, it is beautiful to see these kind of pictures.
    2) what is the answer to the bonus question ?

  • Twin building

    As everyone wrote, Its obviously the crown hotel on Crown st bet Albany and Troy. What still exists is part of the gate near Troy Ave.
    The building to the right was replaced with the Lubavitcher Yeshiva building.
    The same building to the left of the hotel (not in the picture) still exists today on the corner of Crown and Troy (abandoned building).

  • Peck Memorial Hospital

    The service building to the right was torn down to build ULY. The hospital became the Crown Palace Hotel in 1985, and was torn down to build the Crown Condos. The other decaying service building still stands in the Eastern Portion of the property (beyond the area of the picture).

  • the crown hotel

    what a shame that they knocked it down. I still think CH can use a world class kosher hotel – it would be busy all the time and would be an invaluable asset to CH

  • BONUS QUESTION

    The building on the right, is the apartment building
    on Albany ave. corner Montgomery street.

  • Bonus question

    I believe that the small tree in the middle of the block and part of the fence closer to troy ave. are still there

  • to Uncle Mendel - comment #6

    In the 1950s, a Queens Department of Sanitation superintendent named Isidore Cohen had come up with the idea of asking New Yorkers not to park on one side of the street between certain hours once or twice a week (depending on need and other factors); the program was instituted citywide in the ’70s.

    No such thing as tickets in the early decades of last century.. :)

  • WORTHY CAUSE

    I once spent a night there when it was a hotel. forget about stars, it was a nightmare and a scarry one as well. they had a nerve to charge for that dump.

  • It's time

    That location could be so many things:
    A dorm for a yeshiva,
    A JCC with programs and a sports center / swimming pool
    An old age home for our own,
    another few buildings with condos of 4 or 5 bedrooms,
    Another school,
    a multi story parking facility,
    and so much more.

  • Marilyn Cohen`

    Growing up in Crown Heights in the 1950’s, I was always terrified of that building. We were all convinced that it was either haunted, an insane asylum, or both. None of my friends would walk on that side of the block.

    • it wasn't?

      When I moved to CH in the 1980’s I was told by numerous people it was a mental hospital. Looking at the decrepit building and grounds, and the bars on the windows (glass long gone) it was believable.

  • N. Scherer

    Everyone is correct that it’s the hospital that later became crown hotel and then crown condos. However, I believe that this is a view from Montgomery side of the building. Which would explain the position of the parked car and that would mean that the building you’re seeing on the right side of the picture is the building at corner of crown and Troy which still stands today.

    • agreed

      and that building is still there today. Who owns that part of the property?

    • Anonymous

      The building on the right isn’t on the corner of troy, because the building which was on the corner of troy still stands today yet is abandoned as you can see from other images, so this view has to be from the crown st. side. In addition, the address to the hospital was 570 Crown street, which also explains why you are seeing the front of the hospital in this image.

  • 1970's

    I remember that property when it was still the hospital and there were packs of wild dogs that roamed around inside and outside the gates – it was over grown and wild .only time it looked half decent was when it first snowed and then it looked interesting.
    Does anyone have anymore pics from the 1930s or 1940’s of crown heights and east new York area? Even Brownsville?
    Doing research on that time period and it would help greatly.

  • 48 yr in the hood

    my kids remember it as the hotel . i rember going with my father to blow shofer in that hospital . wow how times pass us by

  • heshy

    CARSON C. PECK Memorial Hospital where my three children were born,1959,1960,and 1964.We lived across the street on Troy Ave.

    • daniel

      Hi, I’d love more information on the building to the right that still stands today. Do you have any other pictures of it, know who owns it? I am an architecture student interested in it for a school project

      my email is speedskater12@gmail.com

      thank you!! zayt gezunt